Currently, various types of security systems are employed in both residential and business locations where a control panel sends signals containing an alarm or other status reporting information to a central monitoring station. The central monitoring station acts as the link between a home or business and police, fire, and other emergency response authorities. In addition, premise security systems now include the ability to allow two-way voice communication between a control panel and the central monitoring station.
To support these applications, the infrastructure of a conventional security system typically includes a control panel, which includes one of the following possible communication modules to communicate with the central monitoring station: (1) a traditional plain old telephone system (POTS) communication module to access the public switched telephone network (PSTN), (2) a wireless RF communication module to access a digital cellular or digital personal communications service (PCS) network, or (3) an IP communication module to access the Internet. In a conventional security system employing a POTS Dialer module, alarm and/or other status reporting information are reported to the central monitoring station by way of the PSTN network. During the reporting period, two-way voice communication between a control panel and the central monitoring station is possible since the POTS line is in use (a channel which allows transmitting digital status report and handle 2 way voice audio communication). When POTS line are used, physical wires are required between the control panel and a telephone jack thus resulting in an increase in the installation time and costs as well as limiting the placement of the control panel within the premise.
In a conventional security system employing traditional alarm communications protocol alarm and/or status data transfer is not reliable via the current voice over global system mobile communication (GSM) network. This is because GSM providers fail to reliably transfer dual tone multi-frequency (dtmf) oriented digital reports due to latency and timing changes introduced by inferior telecommunications equipment. The only reliable alarm reporting is limited to the digital portion of the GSM's general packet radio services (GPRS) channel, which does not allow traditional analog 2-way voice communication.
In a conventional security system employing a POTS digital dialer communication module, the analog port on the modem of a VOIP communication path is utilized for transmitting digital alarm and/or status reports and two-way voice audio communication. However, some VoIP providers do not allow reliable alarm or other status information reporting and voice communications between the control panel (or keypad) and the central monitoring station. This is because VOIP providers fail to reliably transfer dual tone multi-frequency (dtmf) oriented digital reports due to latency and timing changes introduced by inferior telecommunications equipment.
Hence, there is a need for an apparatus, system and/or process employed in premise security systems to allow a reliable method to deliver alarm and/or status reports) and also establish 2 way voice communication link between a control panel and the central monitoring station. Also, in some instances it may be desirable to also have an apparatus, system and/or process, which support both digital and two-way voice communications simultaneously. Moreover, it is desirable to achieve this communications goal wirelessly between the control panel and the POTS line, the analog port on the VoIP modem and/or both IP and Analog port, in order to remove the need for running a physical wire between the control panel and these mediums.